[Rosiak's Blog] Previewing South Florida

[ToddRosiakSays]

Previewing South Florida


The fact that MU is heavily favored coming into Tuesday night's game against South Florida is no surprise - the Bulls are 0-19 on the road since joining the Big East in 2005-'06.

Even still, the Golden Eagles won't be looking past 6-foot-9, 270-pound horse Kentrell Gransberry in the post.

Gransberry, who led the Big East in rebounding last season with 11.4 rebounds per game and had an eye-popping 26-point, 23-rebound outing in the Bulls' season finale last year at DePaul, is once again up to his old tricks in his senior season. He's second in scoring in league games at 21.0 points and rebounding at 10.6 per game. He's also sixth in field-goal percentage at 57.7%.

He battled foul trouble in MU's dramatic 70-68 victory in Tampa last season, finishing with 11 points and five rebounds. It's a safe bet he'll be more productive this time around.

"What he is, is he's very quick,: said MU coach Tom Crean on Monday. "He's got phenomenal hands, a real presence in the post. But the quickness and speed that he plays with is, I think, what separates him. If our ball pressure is not really good, it doesn't matter how good our post defense is because he's going to be able to get around it. So we've got to have great team defense when they're trying to feed him the basketball."

The Golden Eagles beat the Bulls thanks to Jerel McNeal's steal and layup at the buzzer the last time the teams met. They now feature another scorer in freshman wing Dominique Jones, who's averaging 15.0 points and knocking down 2.4 three-pointers a game at a 44.7% clip.

"They've got an incredible inside-outside attack," Crean said. "They've got one of the best post-ups in the country, and very, very good perimeter players. They've got some players that we're familiar with and also some new players. We did not play well down there last year. It was a dramatic win, with Jerel making the steal and going in for the layup at the buzzer. I'm sure they remember it as well.

"In our mind, we know that this is a big game, we know they're a good team. I worked with their coach (Stan Heath) at Michigan State, so I certainly know what he's capable of. Right now, every game in this league is an event, it really is. It's a competitive event, and every game matters. We've got to really be on top of our stuff, and I feel like we have been (Sunday and Monday)."

Looking at the Bulls (10-10, 1-6) as a team, a couple statistics pop out: they're last in the Big East in free-throw percentage, having hit just 57.5% in league play, have allowed opponents to shoot 47.3% (second-worst), and are registering a league-worst 3.86 steals per game.

http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2008/01/29/previewing-south-florida.aspx